-It's been awhile since we've seen a new GPS navigator from TomTom that featured the manufacturer's Live connected data service.
But, with the announcement of a new Go Series last year, we knew one was coming.
Well, it's here.
I'm Antuan Goodwin.
Let's take a first look at the TomTom Go 2505 M Live.
Now, as you can probably tell from the model name, the 2505 M Live is actually a variation of the 2505 TM, a non-Live unit that we reviewed last year.
You'll recognize the large 5-inch glass capacitive touchscreen and the asymmetrical middle chassis that snaps into its car cradle with magnets.
On the inside, it's also got TomTom's new Webkit-based interface that's both faster on the draw and a little bit easier to use.
But the real story happens on the inside as the Live unit is actually equipped with a cellular data connection, powered by AT&T, that gives users access to TomTom's Live Service.
That means you get access to things like local fuel search,
local POI search powered by Google, weather forecast, and a new service called TomTom HD Traffic.
Now, HD Traffic differs from regular traffic in that it comes the internet, first of all; secondly, it gives you a faster, more frequent updates than your RDS FM traffic that we're used to; and finally, by using the TomTom's secret sauce, kinda routing algorithm, it's able to pull traffic data for surface roads, something that we usually don't see in GPS devices or any traffic service for that matter.
Now, this big guy's actually gonna be the first unit to support TomTom's HD Traffice service when it debuts later this year in mid-2011.
I'm Antuan Goodwin.
We've been taking a first look at the TomTom Go 2505 M Live.